Spookii x Enji "YABAI" Colla-BOO-ration

We know it's a super late "press release", but better late than never. As you might have known, we did a "YABAI" (ヤバイ) colla-BOO-ration with Enji before, and it was released at Design Festa 2015. Well we did not exhibit there actually, but Enji did. So mad props to our fellow ghoulie Enji for bringing our "YABAI" collaboration to Design Festa, our mission was accomplished: Japan was totally terrified! So without further ado, here's Enji talking about our collaboration...

KAWAII KOWAIBORATION

Well, I haven’t told you about how I love Japan so much! If we’re talking about something quirky, creepy kawaii and its sugoiness, then Japan is a perfect place to go. Kawaii Paradise and Kowai Heaven (in a good way ofc LOL~) that makes you wish to have teleport machine and *poof* anytime you want. I’d even dreamed to make friends with Hiro Nakamura (you know, the guy from "Heroes" who possessed the ability of space-time manipulation?) #GeekTalk sorry... lololol~

Anywayyyyy...back to Japan. Totoro’s home is an inspiring country where every corner has its own uniqueness. The people, the food, the styleeeee are oh, so mind-blowing~! Even the Japanese Term itself inspired me to make quirky-kawaii stuff. Anddd togetherrrr, we had this crazy ideas to develop our first kawaii-kowaiboration by using "YABAI" (ヤバイ) word and translated it into our own quirky-creepy "YABAI collection". Yayayayay...

So, basically..."YABAI" (ヤバイ) is a new Japanese slang that express something really good, AHmazeballs or even bad, but here ofc we’re introducing Yabainess in our own cool term. We decided to make creepy-kawaii tee, necklace, tote-bag and buttons to add rad-ness in your life. Rad is good but creepy-kawaii is even better ^^ 

So, yeah enjoy our first "YABAI" series and much more to comeeeeeeee~! BOOYAHHH...

 

Halloween Fun Packs

Counting down to Halloween, and we have a bone-chilling surprise for you. Yes, today we finally release our Halloween fun packs! It's limited to 5 fun packs, and each pack will be filled with random goods. It can be accessories, stickers, buttons and even cheap Halloween toys, so prepare to be thrilled. And now, let's say  "hallo" to Halloween!

Halloween Loot

It's Spooktober, a month full of candies and ghoulies. And for us — the ghoulie gang members, we have to perform the same ritual every year: hunting down cheap and weird Halloween goods. It can be toys, books or even accessories, we love everything freaky! We've been lurking various toy stores these past 2 weeks, and we managed to score some of these cool Halloween stuffs. Our most favorites are Knife Thru Head, Bone Go Thru Head and Blood Capsules toys. For ghoul's sake, look at those packagings: the colors are vibrant, the drawings look crappy, they definitely got those vintage Halloween toys vibe! And psstt, let me tell you a spooky secret. There will be some limited edition Halloween Unlucky Bags for sale, and we'll put some cheap toys inside. You might get a witch's finger, a blood capsule or even a rotten teeth maybe?

Knife Thru Head

Bone Go Thru Head

Eye-popping Glasses and Blood Capsules

 Witch's Fingers, Scary Tales Book and Monster's Fingers

Frankenstein's Monster & Jack O' Lantern 

Wind-up Toys and Monster Pouch

Dressed To Kill: Rosemary's Baby

Don't you all grew tired of Wednesday Addams clones lately? We do, actually. It's always good to put the fun back into funerals, but it's not all about black and white — try with more colors and patterns! We love watching old horror movies, the plots send shivers down our spines, some scenes gave us nightmares, the props are cool, and don't forget about the wardrobes. That's why we wrote this Dressed To Kill column, every now and then we'll recommend some of our favorite horror and thriller movies, for fashion's sake! But fear not, no spoiler alert.

What do we got here for the first article? Yes it's Rosemary's Baby, a 1968 psychological horror film directed by Roman Polanski, based on a novel by Ira Levin. Definitely one of our most favorites, a really creepy film with stunning visuals. We love everything about this movie: the story, the apartment setting and most importantly, Mia Farrow's wardrobes! The story is about Rosemary Woodhouse, who's going to have her first baby, but then she smells conspiracy between her husband and the neighbors. What you will get on this movie? A devil worshipping cult, a thrilling story, occult rituals and Rosemary's excellent fashion taste. And now what are you waiting for? Go to the thrift stores, get some vintage clothings and dress to kill!

 Mia Farrow as Rosemary Woodhouse

Kubrick Universal Monsters

I've never been a fan of block-style figures, maybe because as a kid I wasn't into collecting Lego figures. But one day when I was browsing the internet, I stumbled across this Japanese toy line called Kubrick (yes, the name is a homage to Stanley Kubrick). This line produces collectible block-style figures, most of them are characters from movie, comic, anime and video game. The figures are produced in limited numbers and not re-released, and that's what make it cool. But I wasn't impressed with most of them, until I saw the Universal Monsters figures. The series are based on horror movies made by Universal Studios, such as Dracula (1931), Frankenstein (1931), The Mummy (1932) and The Wolf Man (1941), just to name a few.
 

 Mad Monster Party!

But alas, the Universal Monsters series was already sold out years ago (the series was released in 2002). This sudden urge to possess all of them led me to the source of evil named eBay, o' Lord please have a mercy on me! I think I got two or three figures with a reasonable price at first, but that wasn't enough. After around three-month quest, finally I got 10 figures. I was amazed, because for a block-style figure, the details are amazing! I'm missing 2 figures actually, Dr. Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein (they are not monster-like, anyway). But I couldn't care less, the monsters are all here and it's a Mad Monster Party!

Quasimodo (The Hunchback of Notre Dame), The Mole People, Metaluna Mutant

(This Island Earth), The Creature (Creature from the Black Lagoon), Phantom of the Opera

Invisible Man, Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster, The Mummy, The Wolf Man

And oh, speaking about Mad Monster Party, you know that 1967 stop-motion animated film? No? Then you have to watch it! We'll review the movie later, but as for right now, just enjoy the party!

Obake no Q-taro, The Dog-fearing Ghost

I grew up watching a lot of anime series, and some of them are adapted from Fujiko Fujio's works. Doraemon, Ninja Hattori-kun, Pokonyan, Perman (also known as P-man in Indonesia) and Mojacko  are some anime series that shaped my childhood. One day when I stumbled across Instagram, a random Japanese guy uploaded a toy that seems familiar to me, but I can't recall. I asked him about the name of the character, and he said it's Qtaro from Obake no Q-taro, a manga and anime series created by Fujiko Fujio. I downloaded some episodes, after he told me about it. As far as I remember, the anime series is never aired in Indonesia, but I remember playing the game on Nintendo.

Basically the story is about the daily life of Qtaro, an obake who likes to fly around scaring people and stealing food, but he is afraid of dogs. He lives with Shota Ohara, an average grade school boy. Just like most of Fujiko Fujio's works, the formula is still the same. The main characters are the equivalent of Nobita and his classmates, there's a big bully, a rich kid, a smart kid, and a girl who likes to play with these boys. Actually, Obake no Q-taro was created before Doraemon, so my analogy is invalid here.

Obake no Q-taro manga cover

Obake no Q-taro VHS cover

As I said before, I knew the character from the game I played on Nintendo. As a kid I love it so much, I even drew my own ghost character inspired by him. Oh, if you never play the game, you should! It's a fun game, as Qtaro you have to fly around eating candies, fruits and cakes, but you should avoid the dogs. What? You don't have a Nintendo console? Fear not, you can play the game on 8bbit! I would suggest you to have some sweets while playing, have fun spooking!

Count Duckula, The Vegetarian Vampire Duck

My fascinations with all things creepy started when I was around 8 or 9 year old, I grew up as a 90's kid. I collected many Goosebumps novellas, played Ghouls 'n Ghosts on Sega and my favorite cartoons were Extreme Ghostbusters, Toxic Crusaders and also Count Duckula! Yes, Count Duckula, that weird British cartoon series about a vegetarian vampire duck. Count Duckula is a vegetarian by accident, because his last reincarnation did not run according to plan. His Nanny (that clumsy anthropomorphic hen maid) accidentally substitutes blood with tomato ketchup during his last reincarnation ritual, well to cut a long story short, Count Duckula is reborn as a vegetables-loving vampire duck, duch!

Count Duckula's main characters, from left to right:

Dr. Von Goosewing, Count Duckula, Nanny and Igor

Count Duckula DVD cover

The characters are goofy, also the setting of the castle and the colors are gloomy. That's why as a kid fascinated with spooky things, this cartoon always have a special place in my heart. The logo looks like a crappy horror punk band's logo, and the theme songs (both the opening and the ending) have those spooky yet funky classic Motown vibes. The opening sequence starts with a narrator speaking (with hammond organ playing in the back), which reminds me of Iron Maiden's The Number of the Beast intro.  I really love the ending sequence, with mainly orange and green colors and collage-styled black-and-white photos, which add more B-movie feels to it. Well I guess everyday is Halloween at Count Duckula's spooky castle!

I'm not going to spoil you with the whole stories, not that I remember all of them anyway. You can stream the whole episodes on Count Duckula's Youtube Channel, I'll leave you with some screenshots from episode 2. Now unsharpen your fangs and let's bite some vegetables!

Cheap Halloween Masks

Here at Spookii's haunted house, we collect random toys, anything weird, crappy and cheap basically. We often go to random toy stores, to see what we can find there. One day when we go out for a toy hunt at Toys Kingdom, we got this plastic Dracula and Frankenstein's Monster masks at the Halloween leftover section, where they'd put some unsold Halloween goods. It's dirt cheap, only cost us $4 for these two. They look like vintage crappy Halloween masks, and that's why we love it!

And oh, did we ever tell you that we also love old horror movies? These masks remind us of the late Christopher Lee, both characters are the roles he played in his Hammer Horror career — although he was best remembered as Dracula. But we're not going to review his movies right now, we'll save it for another day!

 Christopher Lee as Dracula

Horror of Dracula (1958)

 Christopher Lee as Frankenstein's Monster

The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)

New Ghouls On The Blog

We've been slacking off lately, but finally we're ready to haunt blogspot. For those who don't know Spookii, we are a Jakarta-based clothing line, we make candy-colored attires for the creepy crawlers. There will be more posts on this blog later, it can be an article about cheap Halloween toys we found, music that chills (down your spine), or even trashy horror movie review, because everyday is Halloween at Spookii's haunted house. And now we're going for a flash back, let's take a peak of what we've launched before. Get your spook on!

 

Sweet Trap tee

Oni tee